City police chief revives TRS

CEBU, Philippines — The Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is now back.

Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, CCPO director, decided to revive TRS owing to the increasing incidence of theft and robbery in the city.

“Physical injuries, theft and robbery are the top three most committed crimes in the city based on our recent statistics,” he said.

TRS was dissolved sometime in 2018 when former CCPO director and now Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Royina Garma revamped the entire police force.

At present, he said, no team or unit is dedicated and assigned to counter and investigate into the crimes or even conduct crime prevention drive.

Soriano sees the need to “recompose and reestablish” a unit that will focus on theft and robbery cases.

TRS is composed of 14 members, who were previously assigned in this unit, and is under the office of City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU).

The police chief said TRS personnel will help in solving the backlog of unsolved cases and in crime prevention efforts.

Soriano said he plans to add more personnel to the unit.

“I am still scouting for policemen from other stations who are qualified to join the team,” he said.

Moreover, Soriano is also planning to revive the Homicide Unit.

Statistics

CCPO’s recent data showed that theft, robbery, and physical injuries remain the most prevalent crimes in Cebu City.

Although the number of crimes decreased last year by 16 percent, former CCPO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Clark Arriola earlier said, theft, physical injuries and robbery cases still topped the number of index crimes.

November to December Last year, 27 robbery cases were reported, lower than the same period in 2018 at 33 cases.

Theft cases, on the other hand, decreased from 124 during the same period in 2018 to 101 last year.

Physical injuries also slumped from 54 cases in November-December 2018 to 27 cases in the same period last year.

Arriola earlier said that these crimes were expected to top the list of crimes considering that Cebu City is a high-urbanized area.

On physical injuries, Arriola said that another factor why Cebu City logged a considerably high number of cases is because it is a “residential” city, meaning it is inhabited by many people and the possibility of infliction of injuries is high.  KQD (FREEMAN)